Fever
by BlackShuck
Summary: HPSB SLASH One-shot fluff. Sirius gets sick, Harry plays nurse. Thanks to Elanastar for the plot-bunny.


Molly fluttered about the room, laden with bottles and vials of various potions, "What a time to get sick!" She muttered as she bustled over to her unwilling patient. "I simply have to get home to keep an eye on poor Fleur, she could go into labor at any moment, and I wouldn't feel right staying here when the poor dear girl needs me."

Sirius snorted crossly as Molly forcefully snatched most of his thick wooly blankets off the bed and attempted to replace them with a thin scratchy one. Sirius weakly clawed after his stolen blankets but had to sulkily let them go, "I'll be absolutely fine Molly. Go and look after your family."

"I couldn't possibly leave you here alone Sirius. If you took a turn for the worse…"

"We would all be utterly grief stricken." Snape put in sarcastically.

"Severus." Molly turned beaming. "Perhaps you would be so kind as to just pop in and check up on him a few times tonight."

Sirius pulled his remaining covers over his head in response, and in a very muffled voice proclaimed, "I'd rather die than have Snape nurse-maiding me."

"Go ahead then, because I for one am most certainly not going to miss out on sleep to care for your mangy flea-bitten hide." Snape retorted.

"Severus." Remus gently reprimanded him.

"Really, this is just such bad timing." Molly clucked as she again attempted to resettle a wriggling Sirius and his excessive number of blankets.

"Oh yes, I woke up this morning and thought that today would be just the day to get really ill and feverish just to inconvenience everyone." Sirius grunted from the depths of the bed as he resisted all attempts by Molly to take his remaining thick, cozy blankets away from him.

"Well there must be somebody who can look after Sirius." Molly said as she turned to survey the loitering Order members.

"I'm on duty." Tonks told them quickly.

Kingsley nodded in agreement. "Same here."

Remus smiled wryly, and stiffly inclined his head towards his waiting goblet of Wolfsbane potion, "I don't think I could manage to administer medicine with paws I'm afraid. Sorry."

"I need to see a warlock about an important deal." Mundungus put in as he edged towards the door.

"Oh dear." Molly fretted, "but he needs a dose of this potion every two or three hours until his fever begins to break, and somebody responsible should really be here to check that he takes it and keep an eye on him to make sure the fever doesn't get too serious."

Harry cleared his throat noisily and waited for the others to remember his presence.

The chatter died and all eyes turned doubtfully to Harry.

"It's fine." Harry said reassuringly. "How much trouble can Sirius possibly cause while he's sick in bed?"

Snape snorted loudly.

Remus looked faintly amused, "You'd be surprised. He isn't a very good patient, so do feel free to crack him over the head with a chamber pot if he gets out of line."

"Hey!" Sirius muttered indistinctly, "I resent that."

"Too bad Black, we leave you to the mercies of Potter. I'm sure you are aware of the inadequacy of his potions knowledge, and I would recommend you check the doses he offers with care." Snape paused in the doorway, "And now that the cur has his medical attendant on hand perhaps we could all get on?"

Within moments the room had cleared, leaving Harry and Sirius alone.

A disheveled head immediately popped out from under the covers, "Thank Merlin they finally left. This bloody blanket Molly wrapped me up in feels like wire wool."

Harry chuckled at the indignant expression on Sirius's face and moved to help him disentangle himself from the offending blanket.

"Bloody scratchy winter pajamas she got me wearing too," Sirius complained, "she said if I wore them I wouldn't want so many blankets."

"Well, it is winter Sirius, and you do have a ridiculous amount of blankets."

"I know that you smarty-pants," Sirius grumbled as he fumbled with his buttons before giving up and wrenching the top over his head, "but I think Molly was trying to boil me like the blasted Christmas pudding, doesn't she know I'm hot and feverish?"

Harry rolled his eyes at Sirius's irrationality and decided to ignore it, "Well, you do look a little pudding-like so I can understand the mistake."

Sirius let his lower lip wobble a little before shooting Harry a dirty look.

Harry just grinned at him. "I thought you were cold a minute ago?"

Sirius pouted. "I'm hot now."

"Well, wrapping yourself up in a million blankets isn't going to help."

Sirius agreed, "I'm melting here." He swiped a hand down his bared chest and grimaced for effect, "Look, I'm sweating. Practically dripping. I hate being ill."

Harry watched as a single sweat-drop beaded and slowly trickled down the middle of Sirius's lean chest before oozing into his belly button. His mouth went dry and he zoned out slightly. For an older man who had seen a lot of hard times his godfather was still quite surprisingly attractive. Though with Sirius no doubt feeling pretty miserable and out of sorts, he certainly didn't need horny seventeen-year-old godsons eyeing his chest with appreciation.

As he shook himself out of his trance, Sirius reclaimed his attention as he began peevishly wrestling with his sheets again.

"I don't think sheets are very good for origami Sirius."

"I'm tangled up." Sirius pouted. "Molly practically tied me to the bed, with the way she tucked me in like I was a silly kid."

Harry suggestively raised an eyebrow and leered a little, "Tied you to the bed eh? Not a bad idea, I'm only surprised that you're complaining."

Sirius stared at him as if he'd just grown horns.

"Okay, I get it, you're not comfortable in there. Come on, out of bed so I can sort it out for you." Harry rushed on.

With much huffing and puffing Sirius did as requested, and then trailed off to the bathroom with slumped shoulders and a scruffy bed head as Harry fought to subdue the veritable mountain of blankets Sirius had earlier deemed necessary.

"You big baby!" Harry called after him, "Now I know why they all wanted out of here so badly!"

Sirius spun around with a glare, "Hey!"

Harry laughed and set about trying to straighten out the messy nest Sirius had managed to wind around himself. Eventually he gave up and threw the whole lot on the floor and simply summoned fresh sheets and a new blanket.

"There, better?" He asked as Sirius staggered dramatically out of the bathroom.

Sirius scrambled back into his neatly made bed and nodded sleepily as Harry gently drew the thin covers over him.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Look, I appreciate you offering, but don't feel that you have to get up half-a-dozen times tonight, I'm sure I can manage to pour a bit of potion down my throat by myself."

Harry grinned affectionately at Sirius and shook his head, "Oh no, I'm not having you evade dementors and death eaters and idiots like Fudge only to die in bed of a nasty case of flu because I didn't look after you properly. I'll be back every two hours or so to prod you awake so you can take some of the nasty curative brew Snape so begrudgingly left."

Sirius pulled a disgusted face, "Snape left it? That may well finish me off quicker then."

When Harry awakened Sirius at midnight to take a dose of potion he found him hotter and dopier than ever.

By two o' clock in the morning his eyes had acquired a distinctly feverish glitter and his skin was radiating more heat than the average dragon sneeze.

Harry didn't dare to leave him again, and suddenly he was wishing he hadn't volunteered to keep an eye on Sirius. Because even he could tell that Sirius was really quite sick.

What could he do?

Before he could think about it, he had hurried to the fireplace and was fire-calling the burrow, but it seemed that Bill and Fleur's baby had decided to arrive that night because the house seemed deserted and no one answered his shouts for help.

He quickly hurried back to Sirius, wondering if he should try to find Snape, but dismissed the idea. He didn't know exactly where Snape was, and when Sirius recovered he would probably kill him for fetching his archenemy to his bedside while he was helpless.

Drawing on his very limited knowledge of healing Harry squinted at various labels on various potion bottles before managing to deduce that he would probably only poison Sirius if he tried to give him a cocktail of Merlin only knew what.

He decided on the old muggle methods of a cool sponge bath and soothing words.

By four in the morning Harry was almost swaying with tiredness and anxiety as he slopped more cool water onto Sirius's sweaty forehead and began talking to the almost unconscious man about the latest stupid invention the twins had come up with.

Sirius was now slightly delirious and muttering softly in his sleep. Harry's heart ached for the man, and he gently traced Sirius's stubble-roughened cheek with his fingertips, before reaching down and caressing his hot shoulder. It was time for more medicine if he could persuade Sirius to take it.

"Sirius wake up." He said urgently.

"Mmphh?"

"Wake up, I need to give you more potion."

"Don't want stinky potion." Sirius managed to slur. "Want you."

"You need it." Harry insisted as he brought the small beaker of liquid to Sirius's mouth.

Sirius obediently opened his mouth, a disgusted expression briefly skating across his features as he swallowed with difficulty, but some of the pink potion still dribbled down his chin.

Harry sighed as he softly wiped the trickle away with his fingers; at least Sirius had taken most of the medicine; that had to be better than nothing.

As he withdrew his fingers to grab a glass of water for Sirius to rinse his mouth, Sirius nuzzled after them. "Nice and cool." He mumbled and Harry couldn't help but smile as he gave Sirius a sip of water.

"Touch me?" Sirius whined, sighing with pleasure as he managed to get his forehead under Harry's fingers.

Harry shook his head as Sirius forced his face under his hand. It was a strange situation to find himself in, and he had certainly never expected to find himself with Sirius begging for his touch. Though by comparison to Sirius's burning skin, his hands must be blissfully cool he supposed.

"Okay," he soothed as he gently ran his fingers over Sirius's hot skin, "I'm here, and you're going to be fine."

Sirius just sighed and whimpered what might have been Harry's name.

"I'm here." Harry reassured his patient.

"Love you." Sirius muttered indistinctly. "So much."

Harry swallowed hard and his heart seemed to miss a beat, he knew Sirius loved him, but it wasn't something they usually voiced, "Um."

Sirius seemed to tense slightly in his semi-conscious daze.

Harry leaned closer and pressed a kiss to Sirius's clenched jaw and felt the rough rasp of beard against his lips. "It will be fine, I promise. I love you too."

Sirius relaxed immediately, "Beautiful green eyes." He mumbled dopily as he nestled as close to Harry as he could manage, complaints about the heat apparently forgotten. "So beautiful," he reiterated.

"Uh, beautiful? Yeah Sirius. I'm right here. Don't worry about anything."

"Not worried," Sirius muttered distractedly, "You're here… only ever need you… Love you so much it hurts."

Harry frowned; Sirius was even more delirious than he'd thought if he was making declarations of love. Impossible. Harry quickly crushed the thought and concentrated on stroking the cool damp cloth across Sirius's bared chest. There was no way Sirius had feelings like that for him.

Which was something he should feel glad about, so why did he feel very slightly crushed at the thought?

Sirius sighed with pleasure as the moistened material skimmed across his belly and he wriggled in a way that Harry was tempted to describe as sensuous.

Harry gritted his teeth, he really had to stop thinking like this. Fever had just loosened Sirius's tongue; that was all it was.

"Mm, feels so nice… like you to touch me, stroke me… never thought you would... Mm, Harry."

Harry froze and then blinked owlishly at his delirious patient, "You stop that," he grumbled at Sirius. "I can't look after you if you wiggle about and say things that make me think about, well, doing them to you."

Was it his imagination or did Sirius have a faintly smug smile on his face as he wrapped his body more closely around Harry, as he remained perched on the edge of the sickbed.

Harry sat looking down at his snuggling godfather in stunned disbelief. Where the hell had he been? How had he not noticed Sirius thinking of him in that way?

Okay, so granted he was fairly oblivious about quite a lot of things, and he wasn't the most observant person on the planet at the best of times, but this was Sirius, and whatever else the man was, he most certainly wasn't any more subtle than Harry himself. Not usually anyway.

"Harry?" Sirius whined.

Harry paused, before softly brushing Sirius's tousled hair away from his face, "Right here love."

Sirius seemed to relax slightly, and before long his breathing evened out and he slept.

Harry pressed a tentative hand to Sirius's forehead and heaved a sigh of relief, Sirius seemed to have lost much of the intense heat of earlier, and it seemed likely that his fever was well on the way to breaking. But what a night of revelations that fever had brought!

He disentangled himself from Sirius's arms, leaned downwards and brushed a gentle kiss to Sirius's mouth and smiled slightly as he pulled away, he could tell that he would have to consider having a very interesting chat with Sirius when he woke up.

Then suddenly Harry could no longer stifle his yawns and simply curled up on the bed beside Sirius and promptly fell asleep, all thoughts of the fevered confessions gone from his conscious mind.

The sun was high in the sky before Harry even stirred again, and even then it was only because Remus had opened the door and shuffled in looking gray and miserable, "How is he?" he asked quietly.

Harry rubbed gritty feeling eyes and grimaced. "Uh, better than he was earlier."

"Harry? Have you sat up all night?"

"No, not all night."

"Well you look how I feel." Remus joked weakly.

Harry smiled slightly, and straightened up with a serious look on his face. "Can I tell you something in confidence? Because I'm not sure about what to do for the best."

"Mmm, of course." Remus agreed as he lowered himself into a chair with painful slowness.

"Yeah? Thanks. Well he got all feverish at about five this morning and started jabbering about how much he loves me and things. I was really surprised to say the least."

Remus looked uncomprehending for a moment before his eyes widened. "You mean you think he meant in a romantic way?" He stuttered.

Harry nodded emphatically and smiled lopsidedly as Remus let his mouth sag open. "I'd venture to say not just romantically, but sexually too."

Remus put a shaky hand over his face, "Oh great Merlin Sirius you daft bugger." Then he took his hand away and looked at Harry speculatively, "And yet, you don't seem terribly upset at the news?"

Harry managed to shrug nonchalantly. "It isn't as if I never thought of him that way, it just wasn't ever seriously, you know? I mean; it had registered that he is attractive and I do love him, but it was just friendship kind of love, and some idle lusting on my part, until now. But now I've got the idea in my head, I can't seem to dislodge it, and I can't help but think that Sirius would be a terrific boyfriend for me, if only he wasn't my godfather."

Remus tried very hard to assimilate all the shocks he'd just had tossed at him. Harry and Sirius? Together? He smiled faintly and shook his head in mild disbelief, well; he supposed that stranger things had happened. Then he realized that Harry was watching him with anxious eyes. "Well, yes, I suppose if the two of you were to… ah, date, as it were, then you would leave yourselves open to some not inconsiderable gossip and possibly some censure, but there is no legal or moral reason as to why you two should not be involved, assuming that is what you both want."

"Yeah, but what do we want? I mean, the more I think about this, the more I'm unable to think of anything better than being with Sirius as a lover of the serious kind, but I just can't think how to figure out what he meant by the things he said, and how that will translate to a relationship."

"You could just ask him." Remus suggested kindly.

Harry shrugged, "I don't know Remus, I'm hesitant to talk to him about this for some reason. I suppose I'm just worried that maybe he was just raving in his sleep, or maybe that he wouldn't ever want to actually be involved and act on his feelings, and I'm pretty sure he'll be embarrassed."

"Or he might just feel really happy and demand a big juicy kiss." Sirius said suddenly, as he slitted one eye open to look at their reactions.

"You devious devil." Remus addressed him with a grin. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to make an old dog very happy, and certainly enough to want you to scram so I can kiss Harry in privacy."

Remus gave a faint huff of laughter and levered himself out of his chair, "I do believe I am surplus to requirements, so I'll be off to pester Severus for some care and attention. I will see you both later."

Harry stared at Sirius who promptly drew the bedcovers up to his nose and fluttered his eyelashes bashfully.

"So how much did you hear?" Harry demanded.

Sirius had the grace to look slightly ashamed, "Actually I was awake when Remus came in, lying beside you wondering if I really had shot my mouth off last night or if it was just a horrible nightmare."

Harry frowned.

"I had no way of knowing that you wouldn't be completely horrified by the idea." Sirius reminded him.

"True." Harry agreed, "So what now?"

"You kiss me?" Sirius suggested hopefully. "Uhrgh, no, on second thoughts let me change my mind about that, I'm sweaty and disgusting and my mouth still tastes of Snape's brew.

Harry shook his head as Sirius lurched out of bed and staggered into the bathroom, "You should still be in bed really," he called through the door as he heard water start running.

A muffled snort was his only response before Sirius reemerged from the bathroom looking considerably better for his brief shower and tidying.

He wobbled back towards the bed reeling slightly as he did so.

"Bed, now." Harry ordered.

"Why Mr Potter, I thought you'd never ask." Sirius teased as Harry offered his arm to support him.

As they got to the bed, Sirius suddenly seemed to lose his balance and ability to stand upright and collapsed limply on to the bed, without letting go of Harry. Harry found himself facedown on top of a warm body, and eyed Sirius with affectionate exasperation. "You did that deliberately." Harry grunted as he rolled off the bed.

Sirius gave him an unconvincing look of wide-eyed innocence.

Harry rolled his eyes and attempted to tuck Sirius in, but found it was an impossible task. "Will you just get into bed and stay in there?"

"I don't want to, I'm fine really, I was only wobbling just now so I could get you close enough to tackle."

"How very Slytherin of you." Harry teased.

Sirius looked affronted.

"Just teasing," Harry assured him with a smirk, "Actually, I've just decided that the best way to stop you from wanting to escape the bed is to climb into it with you."

Sirius smirked back, "That'll work, now what about my kiss?"

"Will it shut you up?"

Sirius nodded fervently as Harry settled himself in the bed, leaning tantalizingly close.

Harry leaned closer still and gently pushed Sirius back until he was reclining against his pillows, before he began tormenting him by trailing tiny feather-light kisses all over his whole face, chin, cheeks, forehead, nose, before slowly approaching his mouth with the barest swipe of his tongue. Sirius groaned as Harry finally pressed a brief kiss to his mouth before capturing his bottom lip between both of his and slowly, sensuously sucking on it, before suddenly nipping at it and then rubbing it soothingly with his tongue.

Unable to take the teasing any longer Sirius threaded his fingers into Harry's disordered hair and deepened the kiss, until they were both trembling.

They broke apart some minutes later, both breathing hard.

Sirius sighed happily and nuzzled against Harry's neck, "I thought you were trying to cure me of my fever, not raise my temperature?"

Harry smiled, "But I thought you'd rather enjoy having to stay in bed with me to care for you?"

"Well, when you put it like that…"


End file.
